.jpg "Datuk Seri Mustafar Ali speaks during a press conference at the Immigration Department in Putrajaya June 1, 2018. u00e2u20acu201d Picture by Zuraneeza Zulkifli")
KOTA KINABALU, Sept 4 ― The Immigration Department has detained 30,000 illegal immigrants from January 1 till yesterday, its director-general Datuk Seri Mustafar Ali said.
He said over 1,000 employers were also detained during the period for employing or harbouring the illegals.
“The detentions are the result of more than 10,000 operations carried out nationwide with over 100,000 foreigners examined.
“We (Immigration) gave illegal immigrants the opportunity to surrender themselves voluntarily through the 3+1 programme which ended on August 30.
“In addition, we implemented the Rehiring Programme which was terminated on June 30. However, we still find many who do not adhere to the set procedures,” he said.
He was speaking to reporters after the operation codenamed “Ops Mega” here early today, which was also joined in by Deputy Home Minister Datuk Mohd Azis Jamman.
Mustafar said despite a large number of operations carried out, there were still many illegal immigrants located throughout the country.
“Although we have introduced several programmes, many still refuse to surrender, including employers. After the Rehiring Programme, we implemented Ops Mega 3.0 and of the hundreds of operations that we have conducted, we have arrested more than 1,000 illegals from over 7,000 who were inspected.
“We do not want to compromise on the issue of illegal immigrants... because there are many other problems that will arise from this, for example, in relation to health issues and drug abuse,” he said.
Meanwhile, commenting on the operation carried out at the Sepanggar and Kota Kinabalu areas from midnight to 4 am today, Mustafar said 58 illegal immigrants were detained.
“This operation will continue throughout the country, and we want our country to be free of illegal immigrants,” he added. ― Bernama
